5 Wisconsin Bands to Watch for 2016

Millions of streams. Praise from The New York Times. Adoration from Adam Levine. Exposure on Entertainment Weekly and Complex. And support from the same management agency that helped make Lorde a superstar.

For these reasons, and many others, these five acts have made the Journal Sentinel's fourth installment of its Wisconsin Bands to Watch list.

■Tenement, the DIY punk band with members from Appleton and Milwaukee, who emerged from the underground with the bold and critically adored double album "Predatory Headlights."

■Reyna, a brand-new synth-pop trio featuring the sisters from popular local group Vic and Gab, as well as songwriting and production support from the co-writer of Phillip Phillips' huge hit "Home."

All of these artists display the sort of fearlessness, talent, work ethic and intelligence to accomplish the incredible. Regardless of whether they end up playing packed shows for thousands or creating groundbreaking music, these artists are already succeeding — because they're all achieving impressive feats on their own terms.

IshDARR

19-year-old Milwaukee rapper IshDARR discusses his ascent, from recording music at his high school to getting more than a million Spotify streams for a single song. Video by Bill Schulz and Piet Levy.

IshDARR performs 'Sugar' at the Rave

Milwaukee rapper IshDARR performs "Sugar" at his sold-out show at the Rave December 5, 2015. Video by Bill Schulz and Piet Levy.

Then there's Spotify, where IshDARR has had 1.6 million streams — for just four songs. And YouTube, where his four official music videos have been viewed more than 300,000 times.

The Messmer High School graduate's sweet and spicy love-struck club jam "Sugar" ended up on Apple Music's Best of 2015 hip-hop playlist, alongside huge hits from A-listers Kendrick Lamar, Nicki Minaj and Fetty Wap.

"To be here off of one mixtape, that is all bonus," the rapper born Ishmael Ali said backstage at the Rave last December before a sold-out show.

That mixtape was "Old Soul + Young Spirit," which had its premiere on leading music news site Complex last March. A year prior, his debut EP "The Better Life" attracted the attention of former Atlantic Records artists and repertoire rep Amanda Berkowitz. Berkowitz, who co-manages IshDARR with his longtime friend Enrique "Mag" Rodriguez, has worked with big rappers like Lupe Fiasco and Wiz Khalifa.

"He's able to rap his (expletive) off, and the tone of his voice cuts through," Berkowitz said. "On top of that, he's talking about everyday life stuff. People are still holding on to this idea of having this incredible story like 50 Cent who was shot so many times. But people appreciate it when there's a kid who is talking about his life and is not pretending to be anything more. That's interesting and relatable."

Berkowitz secured cutting-edge beats for "Spirit" — including from Grammy-nominated Drake producer Arthur McArthur — and helped attract blog attention. So when the first track, a thumping party banger called "Too Bad," dropped, "it had (4,000) plays in one day," IshDARR said.

"The next week when we dropped the tape, every blog picked it up. We hit 100,000, then 250, then 500." As of last week, "Too Bad" alone had 843,000 SoundCloud plays, and it was streamed over a million times on Spotify within a month.

"What we accomplished last year was a big steppingstone with no marketing or anything," Rodriguez said. "I want to do that times 100 in 2016."

WebsterX

Milwaukee rapper WebsterX talks about finding his calling and creating a style of hip-hop unlike any other. Video by Bill Schulz and Piet Levy.

WebsterX performs 'Doomsday'

Milwaukee rapper WebsterX performs "Doomsday" at the Miramar Theatre on October 22, 2015. Video by Bill Schulz and Piet Levy.

It's a grueling process every year when Complex puts together its artists to watch list, with staffers fiercely fighting for their picks. For the latest list, there was one act everyone agreed deserved a spot: alternative rapper WebsterX, from Milwaukee.

"It's incredible, he's making this weird, melodic, experimental music in his bedroom that sounds better than half the (expletive) on major labels," said Complex Music Managing Editor Lauren Nostro. "It's not contrived, it sounds like he's having fun, and it came from the heart...His music will resonate with a lot of people by the end of 2016, and if he makes his presence known, he could be the breakout artist at South by Southwest like Young Thug two years ago."

The 23-year-old born Sam Ahmed attracted a cultlike following in 2014 at local shows, juxtaposing his intense flow and magnetic stage presence with introspective verses and dreamy melodies.

Last January he went national with the cinematic music video for "Doomsday," which featured WebsterX floating through a gray landscape and rapping ferociously atop a massive mound of scrap metal. Within 48 hours of its premiere on music site Noisey, Entertainment Weekly posted the video, "and that's when people freaked out," WebsterX said. "It cultivated the national fan base. And it kept going and going and going."

The attention led to bigger shows, including a slot opening for Lupe Fiasco at Summerfest in front of thousands. And then WebsterX topped "Doomsday" with the music video for "Lately." Premiered by Complex in August, it features stunning landscapes and unforgettable visual motifs, including WebsterX rapping meditatively in a shallow grave as rose petals fall gently from the heavens.

"I brought something way differently visually than any hip-hop artist has ever done either in the city, or dude, close to in the nation," WebsterX said. And if that sounds like an arrogant boast, its also completely true.

"We're in this realm where people know its good. There's been Grammy Award-winning producers reaching out to me, just insane stuff that I'm getting really gassed about," he said. And this fall, he extended his fan base further with a collaborative track with fellow rising rapper Allan Kingdom.

And he likely doesn't need too, as he sets to prove — like independent breakout Chance the Rapper — that he can sustain a career and fan base on his own.

"People believe in me outside of Wisconsin. People believe in me outside of the Midwest," WebsterX said. "That made me believe so much harder in myself."

Andi & Alex

Identical twin sisters Andi and Alex Peot from Pulaski, Wis. talk about competing on "The Voice" and how it's changed their lives. Video by Bill Schulz and Piet Levy.

Andi & Alex perform 'Where Did You Go?'

"The Voice" contestants Andi & Alex perform "Where Did You Go?" during a sold-out show at the Meyer Theatre in Green Bay, Wis. on January 9. Video by Bill Schulz and Piet Levy.

As identical twin sisters Andi and Alex Peot from Green Bay stepped onto "The Voice" stage for their blind audition, the only thing they could hear was the unsettling sounds of their shoes clanging across the floor.

But when their gorgeous harmonies filled the room, there were exuberant cheers from the studio audience, and all four celebrity judges — Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, Gwen Stefani and Pharrell Williams — turned their chairs in hopes of recruiting the sisters to their team.

And then Sept. 29, when the audition — an intangible rendition of Dido's "Thank You" — aired, 13.6 million people watched, with another 3.2 million streams on YouTube. The cover impressively peaked at No. 4 on the iTunes alternative charts.

"It's one thing for your mom to be like, 'You guys are so good,'" Alex said. "But...to see these celebrity judges who made so much of themselves say, 'Yes, you are so good. I want you. Let's improve together,' it's just everything."

The 23-year-old sisters born in Pulaski — who are daughters of musicians — selected Adam Levine as their mentor.

"Andi & Alex have the most ethereal brilliance to their performance style," Levine said on the show. In addition to guidance from the Maroon 5 frontman and special guest mentors Rihanna and John Fogerty, the sisters saw their version of Brandi Carlile's "Wherever You Will Go" rise up to No. 16 on the overall iTunes charts, with 1.9 million views on YouTube.

"We were shocked," Andi said. "But it was one of those things where we said, 'What was meant to happen will happen.' It was the end of that journey but it opened up doors for us."

That includes making a number of professional connections, attracting 30,000-plus social media followers from scratch and being able to sing the National Anthem at Lambeau Field for "Sunday Night Football." This year the sisters will record and release an EP of originals. "It's more alternative folk," Andi said, comparing its sound to Fleet Foxes and Coldplay. "We want to hit you right in the feels."

And when the sisters stepped onto the Meyer Theatre stage this month in front of a sold-out crowd of 1,000 people, the only thing you could hear was the thrilled cheers from an adoring hometown following.

"What ('The Voice') did for us personally is give us a lot of confidence that people want to hear us," Andi said. "It's very weird but wonderful."

Tenement

Punk trio Tenement talk about its ambitious double album "Predatory Headlights," one of the best albums of 2015 according to the New York Times. Video by Bill Schulz and Piet Levy.

After releasing its first two albums — "Napalm Dream" and "The Blind Wink" — in 2011, the 10-year-old underground punk band took four years to make the exceptionally ambitious 25-track double album "Predatory Headlights," released last June on independent label Don Giovanni.

"It's a really long record with every facet of our emotion and creative minds in it," Pitsch, the 27-year-old singer, songwriter and guitarist, said. "I spend every day of my life just learning about music and making music and thinking about music. (The album is) punk music that's influenced by pop music, by classical, experimental, jazz, everything from Harry Partch to the Descendants and '60s baroque groups and country groups. "

It's a stunning achievement, where Keith Richards-worthy guitar riffs give way to existential wind chimes on "Gardens of Secrecy"; where power pop thrillers like "Feral Cat Tribe" can coexist with interchangeably fragile and eerie strings-accompanied songs like "Heavy Odor."

Those end-of-the-year accolades could open the doors for greater opportunities. But for Tenement, that's not the priority, as it continues to focus on a couple new full-length records.

"Hopefully its exposed them to a more mainstream audience," said Steven Hyden, the former Grantland writer from Appleton who wrote the Tenement piece. "But if you talk to a certain segment of the punk audience, they already think Tenement is one of the best bands in the world right now. Amos is not the type of guy who is going to knock on doors. His idea is, 'If it's good enough, people will come to me.'"

"We've always been a band that stubbornly does what we want no matter what the current trends are," Pitsch said. "I want to go to the natural place where we should go. A lot of people see themselves on 'Late Night,' and maybe that's our fate, and maybe it isn't. I just want to keep continuing to create and to be honest about our art form."

Reyna

The Banuelos sisters Vic and Gabby talk about ending their popular Milwaukee band Vic and Gab and starting a new one — a synthpop act called Reyna. Video by Bill Schulz and Piet Levy.

Reyna performs an acoustic version of 'Spill Your Colors'

New Milwaukee act Reyna performs an acoustic version of its first single, "Spill Your Colors." Video by Seadog Creative.

A song placement on MTV, heavy rotation on WYMS-FM (88.9), an opening gig for Barack Obama, packed club and festival gigs in town and beyond: Pop rock trio Vic and Gab — on the Wisconsin Bands to Watch list in 2014 — indisputably became one of Milwaukee's most popular groups.

And if its catalog manages to match the catchy, anthemic, irresistible appeal of its dynamic first song "Spill Your Colors" even greater things will come.

Not that ending Vic and Gab was part of the plan. At South by Southwest in 2014, the band met up with an A&R rep for RCA Records, who steered the sisters toward Dave Carlson at Saiko Management, the same agency that groomed Lorde.

"There's something very real about the girls," Carlson said. "It just needed a little nudge on the production standpoint."

Carlson set up sessions with seasoned producers and songwriters, including Drew Pearson, who co-wrote Phillip Phillips' blockbuster hit "Home" and produced the latest albums for alternative rock acts Switchfoot and Lights. He lined up a new drummer, Los Angeles-based Patrick Ridgen, who had experience with another electronic-heavy alternative pop artist, Halsey.

"It was such a different process for us," Vic said. "We had never collaborated with anyone beyond ourselves. It was a great way to go to a different level."

And the twenty songs the sisters co-wrote — four or five of which will be selected for a debut EP this year — were so different from Vic and Gab, they felt they had to start fresh. The name Reyna is inspired by the word "reina," Spanish for "queen."

"Vic and Gab was so established, at first when we were in the studio, we were scared to try things because we didn't want to move too far away from that," Gabby explained. "To rename our band and start over, even though its scary to do that, it gave us free license to do anything we wanted creatively."

"We're still people who are trying to make music to make people happy, and that's what Reyna is going to do," Gabby added. "We're just going to do it a little bit better."